What does the wiki really have to offer? Just about every categorical piece of information we can obtain from the game, and with your help it will only grow in usefulness. There are articles for experienced players wishing to grab a quick bit of information about a particular item, to basic summary articles which give a better understanding of which race to select when first stepping into the game.

Below are some of the wiki articles I'd like to highlight especially for those players that are just beginning their journeys into the game and aren't sure what to expect, what to choose, and most importantly, what will be fun!

For an overview of all these articles and more, the wiki TOC is at your disposal:

The World of Warhammer is similar in size, layout and climate to the Earth, and spans several continents. It is orbited by two moons - the white moon Mannslieb and Morrslieb and the dark moon Mannslieb and Morrslieb. According to the earliest legends, the world was formed by a space faring race called the Old Ones, who possessed god-like powers. They built warp gates at the north and south poles which allowed them to travel quickly through space, but they were driven away from the planet when the warp gates collapsed, which initiated the coming of Chaos into the world.

Read this article to understand how the Warhammer world came into being, how it resembles earth in many aspects, and how it will help you to understand what role you can and want to play when first stepping inside the game:

Here is a consolidated article describing how the Warhammer world has developed in many games before Warhammer Online was even conceived, as well as a little bit about who guides the vision for Warhammer:

The first thing to understand about the WAR universe is what the political structure is like. Check out our realm wiki article that describes the two realms, Order and Destruction, that you'll have to choose from before selecting your character's realm:

After selecting either ORDER (good) or DESTRUCTION (evil), you will want to choose one out of three armies available to you for that realm. Armies are essentially groups of class specialties. Choosing one group will yield more melee type characters, while another will yield magic wielding characters. This is where you begin to understand what role you want to play in groups, or whether you want to develop a character that can hold his own on the battlefield. Here is the same wiki article as above, describing these groups in more detail:

This is where things get a little complicated. Each army consists of a race and a "call sign" for that army. As you can see in the link above, ORDER consists of the Dwarfs (The Oathbearers), Empire (The Order of the Griffon), and the High Elves (The Shining Guard). DESTRUCTION consists of Chaos (The Raven Host), Dark Elves (House Uthorin), and the Greenskins (The Bloody Sun Boyz).

The armies are based upon the races, however, there are more armies than just the one based upon that race. The one's here in parentheses are the main armies of that race and the one you'll be associated with.

Step 3, selecting your: CAREER

Career mechanics are the meat and potatoes of what you will be doing in the game. This goes beyond selecting your specific realm, as selecting your realm gives you a "general" idea of what you want to do. Now its time to put foot to pavement and select that specific set of skills. There are generally four careers per realm. This gives you a total of twelve careers to choose from within your army.

These links will better help you to understand the three most important areas of skill "Abilities", no matter which career you ultimately choose, as each career has a little of each of these. The last link will also help you to understand what growth opportunities you have once you select a career:

The Warhammer Online world is much like any other. It is filled with rolling plains, steep cliffs, rivers, lakes, and many adventurous areas that will either spawn rewards to those strong enough to counter those various nasty hidden threats, or send those running home to their mommy because they were too weak to defend themselves.

Once you created your character, you'll be placed in one of the starting areas. And these cities mind you are HUGE, so be sure to check out our atlas section for future updates on maps that will guide you through these cities, and more:

Also keep watch at the above link for lists of zones and what useful information may help you understand where you currently are in the world. We wouldn't want you to get lost, or worse... So we're here to help guide you through those areas that might otherwise make for a bad day for your character. And if you have to get somewhere, what better way to do that than in style, perhaps on a Chaos steed or Imperial warhorse:

The in-game "Tome of Knowledge" provides a nice outline of zones, their descriptions, and much much more on various elements within the the world. Fortunately, we have a growing duplicate of this "ToK" feature right here in our wiki:

When in game, this ToK will NOT be completely open to your character. As you explore the world and encounter new creatures, the bestiary section of the ToK will reveal information about these creatures. The same goes for other aspects of new discoveries.

You could skip all that simply by helping us build and fill out that information in our ToK linked above. Let the community do the dangerous exploration for you! At the very least, gaining insight into an upcoming encounter is always preferred over knowing nothing about what is to come.

THE THREATS THAT HIDE IN SHADOWS

Speaking of dangerous and threatening areas, what better way to understand potential threats but to study them first-hand and learn of their weaknesses! Our wiki sports a growing database of creatures of all shapes and sizes, and threats:

Just be sure to watch your back when traveling through areas that offer fewer escape routes, such as dangeorus underground areas known as dungeons. Fortunately, if you are caught in one of these areas and are looking for a way through, we have a wiki article describing these dungeons and what to watch out for, as well as potential treasures hidden in their depths for those skillful enough to exploit them:

Just be sure to understand that some dungeons are designed for those that come with friends... read carefully "Realm-instanced", "Group-instanced", and "Warband-instanced" descriptions for detailed understandings of each.

DEFEND YOURSELF!

In order to protect yourself from dangerous creatures, you'll want only the best weapons, armor, and other equipment with you when you adventure across the world. Our wiki also provides a vast array of all your equipment needs to ensure you are ready for a fight when the going gets tough:

Can't afford to buy any of these items, nor want to risk killing dangerous creatures that may hide items of value on their corpses? Then go ahead and make your own! Here is an article that describes all the crafting choices you have at your disposal. This also includes the simple gathering of raw materials required to put something together:

Are you with a large guild ready to take on an enemy of epic proportions, whose own battlefield is defended by countless castles and armies of infinite numbers of men, goblins, orcs, and other creatures you'd rather see stay on their side of the river? Here are a few articles describing the combat system, what awesome siege weapons your army has at their disposal, and what rewards can be gained from conquering such intimidating and large enemies. And yes, even the last article that describes where to go when the tough get going...:

It happens to us all. Even my expert knowledge at building computers will still yield unexpected and disappointing results when the hardware that is put together simply fails, or I forgot to add something critical, like say a fan to the processor chip... Here is an article in our wiki that describes Warhammer Online expected game performance, and how to best navigate the in-game menu to tweak that performance to suit your specific computer's abilities:

You may also want to consider upgrades to your computer, or even a new computer if yours is several years old. Allakhazam has an entire wiki area for this as well. You'll find products and advice on how to best tailor your hardware to suit your budget limits, and at the same time satiate your cravings for smooth running games:

That is what these games are meant for, right? If our articles can't help you past a computer disaster, hopefully your friends will be able to guide you through and get your computer back up and running again. Here is a wiki article that goes over "Regiments", which are what the Warhammer universe calls guilds. If you don't have one, this is a great place to start understanding what type you may wish to join:

Thank you for the write-up. I just returned to the game after playing a bit after release and have been having a great time. I have been doing a lot of research trying to learn all that I can. This site and now your write-up have made it easier.